Some players scoff at arcade rail shooters. The games generally take less than a half hour to plow through and contain some rather simplistic gameplay: insert money, point gun at enemy horde, blow enemies’ heads off, run out of life, rinse, repeat. But that simplicity – and the adrenaline...

Word from Sega’s official blog is that the Dreamcast classic, Jet Grind Radio, will be making its way to Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network sometime in the near future.  The short teaser released did not specify a specific date or any further details regarding additional features or the...

This entry in the House of the Dead franchise takes the original Wii-exclusive release and brings it to the PS3 with a high-definition makeover, PlayStation Move support, and a glut of new content (including two brand-new stages). The result is a game that, while not perfect, manages to scratch that arcade...

A lone hero versus a creepy madhouse filled with zombies and other horrific creatures of the night?  It’s been done before,  but it’s never felt this real. Sega’s Rise of Nightmares is the first ESRB M-rated title exclusively for the Kinect peripheral, and after taking one look at the...

I review books as well as video games. A book takes me about 5 hours, maybe less, to play through it. I don’t ever get stuck in a particularly tough boss chapter section where either my skills or the book’s design prevent me from moving forward. I watch movies, too. I can imagine that reviewing...

Sega’s mildly received Western developed hardcore experiment on Wii, House of the Dead: Overkill is reborn with a new coat of “shiny” on the PlayStation3 as House of the Dead Overkill: Extended Cut. As those who have experienced the original game already know, Overkill is a bit of  a...

RRRRRRRIIIIIIIDDDDDGGGGGGEEEEEEE RRRRRAAAACCCCCEEEEERRRR! Well, actually that is a lie. Sega Rally Online Arcade is a downloadable rally game from – yes, you guessed it, Sega – that channels arcade racing games of old while adding a new coat of paint to the package. Although it is easy to become...

It is finally time to bury the term “for a Wii game.” The overused review qualifier that was imagined as a means to quell the fervent and insistent Nintendo fanbase has become a liability that has lead to the creation of a bias towards an underpowered system with ambitions far beyond its scope. The...

Region-locking: truly a two-way street that goes nowhere. Last year, I spent two months studying abroad at the Yamasa Institute in Okazaki, Japan.  One of the people I met there working for the school was a US expat and Japanese history buff who was extremely excited about The Creative Assembly’s...

Sports games always seem to get the short end of the stick as far as soundtracks go (with one of the major exceptions being the early Tony Hawk games); Publishers rely on popular Top-40 hits that are never able to feel fresh or exciting because by the time the game actually makes it to retail, the song is...